


Bluff

by introductory



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene, Wordcount: 500-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-29
Updated: 2012-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-02 17:09:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/introductory/pseuds/introductory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk leans back in the chair, sprawls out so Pike can clearly see the constellations of blood dotting the front of his shirt, and grins like he thinks he's being clever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bluff

**Author's Note:**

> This didn't go where I wanted it to go, which was, well, actual banging, sorry.

"Enlist in Starfleet," he says, and Jim Kirk shakes his head and laughs like he's just heard a punchline. So Pike stands, already resigning himself to the fact that when the shuttle leaves at 0800 hours George Kirk's son won't be on board. 

Which is why it surprises him when Kirk tilts his head up to look him in the eye, and says, "Yeah, okay, Captain Pike."

Too easy, thinks Pike, even as he nods approvingly. "Good. Be at the Riverside shipyard—"

"—if you take me home with you first."

Kirk leans back in the chair, sprawls out so Pike can clearly see the constellations of blood dotting the front of his shirt, and grins like he thinks he's being clever.

Pike almost can't believe it. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that, considering it violates about six different Starfleet regs." Not to mention decency, morals, and common sense; he's been propositioned before, but rarely this shamelessly, and never with actual stakes. He's not even remotely tempted. "0800 hours, Kirk. Try to stay out of trouble till then."

"It's just," Kirk continues, "I came here tonight looking to pick somebody up. And I was making pretty good headway on Uhura, but Starfleet brass showing up and clearing the whole place out? No way I'm getting laid after that. And right now I'm kinda looking at the guy responsible."

There's a silence in which Kirk downs the remaining volume of his beer, throat working in long swallows, and Pike stares down at him, pretending to contemplate. When Kirk sets the glass down there's a dare in those narrowed blue eyes, and then Pike really has to suppress a laugh. The _ego_ on this kid: it's got nothing to do with George Kirk and everything to do with twenty-two years of the universe taking everything you ever had the audacity to love. He's read Kirk's file: brother dead, mother off-world for years at a time, uncle unwilling to put up with him any longer than required by law. A life like that and there's no point in playing it safe.

"So let me get this straight," says Pike, and Kirk's expression sharpens. "I say yes, and you come with me to the Academy, clean up your act, and finally do something useful with your life? Or I say no, and you stay right where you are, giving your mother heart attacks and squandering your potential on a life of misdemeanor crime?"

"Yep," says Kirk, brazen and unrepentant. "Sounds about right."

"Then you're staying right where you are." Pike tosses a few credits onto the table, just enough to cover his own drink. "I care about your future, son, but not nearly as much as you seem to think. Now if you'll excuse me."

He's taken half a step when Kirk says, "Wait. Captain Pike." Even now, that's still not submission in his tone, but it's enough for Pike to turn back, to favor the kid with a thin smile. 

"You were saying?"

Kirk hesitates. "What if it's not . . . " He's fiddling with the _Kelvin_ -shaped saltshaker on the table, gaze downcast; Pike can't get a read on whether he's being genuine or genuinely calculating, but he suspects it's the latter. "What if it was just sex? We go back to your place, we both have a good time, and then you can ask me again about Starfleet in the morning."

Pike shakes his head, incredulous and just the smallest bit disappointed. "What part of 'not interested' do you not understand? Go home. Clean yourself up. Comm your mother and let her know you're still alive." The kid can't honestly be this desperate; there's something else he's asking for here, but whatever it is, it's neither in Pike's duties nor his interest to find out. 

He leaves Jim Kirk there at the bar and finds him again in the Riverside shipyard at 0750, wearing last night's blood on his shirt and a look on his face like he's not quite sure why he's there, either.


End file.
